RE: Pylos combat agate - Miniature drawing

Lenses and magnification were known in the ancient world to at least 750 BCE, and the Pylos artifact is only about 750 years prior to that. Even without glass, water and amber can be naturally found with magnifying properties.

RE: Pylos combat agate - Miniature drawing

36mm is about an inch and a half. It is not exactly microscopic. You can do stuff like this if you have agate, time, and someone who will stick a sword in you if you don't do it. Look up Minoan art. The outfits look Minoan. The drawing style and the figures look Minoan. The Minoans generally did not depict violence. This is mainland Greece and Mycenean, and they probably were violent as all hell.

I find the action poses remarkable. Action poses were very difficult to conceive and draw prior to the invention of photography in the nineteenth century.

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JHG

RE: Pylos combat agate - Miniature drawing

I was thinking of a lever based machine that could scale down a larger drawing, like a pantograph.
Pantographs, invented in 17th century, are widely used to make miniature engravings.
So, perhaps pantograph technology was invented 35 centuries earlier?

Any other low technology (except hanging a sword upon your head) of making this miniature drawing?

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